STAR WARS: REBELS -- UNTITLED
by Tharpdevenport
Summary: A mission goes wrong and Ezra and Kanin face death. And they're not alone... (I have yet to think of a title)
1. Chapter 1

A fury of red laser blasts shoot passed an unusually different Empire two-man attack vessel.

Kanan jerks around the wheel, trying evasive maneuvers. In the cockpit behind him, Ezra mans the gunner controls, firing at half a dozen TIE fighters.

"There's too many!" Ezra yells.

"Pick one and keep at it until it's gone – don't fire aimlessly!" Kanan answers back.

"I'm trying but you keep flying them out of my line-of-sight!"

"Keep firing! I need an opening to jump!" Kanan replies.

 **BOOM!** The ship rocks.

"They got the R2 unit. We're on fire!" Ezra shouts.

Ezra continues to fire and by coincidence hits a TIE fighter dead on. It explodes close to the vessel and pieces briefly hit the hull and Ezra's cockpit window dome.

"The explosion has caused them to part – I got an opening – jumping to hyperspace!" Kanan yells.

The experimental vessel leaps away into the blackness of space.

Kanan throttles back and the ship stops.

"Okay, let's take a minute to assess the damage and then I'll reposition the ship and jump to the rendezvous point."

Ezra comments, "Got you. The Empire is getting sloppy, hiding a little test base out in the middle of nowh-"

Suddenly all the TIE fighters exit from hyperspace and bare down on their position.

"TIE's!" Ezra shouts.

"There must be a tracking device on the ship. Hold on!"

Kanan floors it. Ezra takes the opportunity to fire with a few seconds of steady flying.

"Let's see what this thing has got…" Kanan jerks the wheel left and spins the ship in a tilted orbit around the TIE fighters. On the trajectory line he starts rolling the ship in place and widening the orbit, changing the target profile of the ship and making it difficult to get a lock.

"That was very fancy, but I couldn't fire at anything!" Ezra complains.

Suddenly a TIE glides by and Ezra fires again and again until he blows it out of the stars.

The TIE's break formation to attack at multiple angles.

"It's gotta be broadcasting a beacon signal via hyperspace communication channels. If I rig this comm' panel I may be able to detect-"

Kanan cuts Ezra off, "There's no time. Use the Force."

"How?" Ezra says, confused.

"concentrate on the beacon signal. Try to feel its energy source to locate it."

Kanan yanks the wheel down and climbs fast up the y-axis on an acute curve. Two TIE's climb up with him at opposite sides, firing, but missing repeatedly. Red beams shoot passed the cockpit windows in both directions to the fore of the vessel.

Ezra puts his hands on the dash and starts feeling out the tracking device. _BOOM!_ He's jolted out after they take a direct hit to a protruding wing. Ezra starts again.

Kanan de-throttles to a nearly instantaneous stop and spins the ship 360 degrees, then opens it up all the way, blasting back down the y-axis. The two TIE's shift directions to avoid hitting each other, but end up slamming wings together, which cause explosions and sparks. They both go tumbling about widely into space. One explodes.

"Now would be better, Ezra."

Alarms start sounding and red lights start flashing.

Ezra opens his eyes, "It's coming from behind my seat!"

"Angle your lightsaber at it and activate it!"

Kanan tries to avoid the final two TIE fighters as Ezra tries to turn himself around in the cramped cockpit. He puts the beam-end of the lightsaber to his seat and feels the seat with the other hand. He stops and activates the lightsaber. He can hear popping and cracking from damaged electronics and a slightly deeper hum as the saber cuts threw hyperspace-grade alloys. He de-activates it and pulls it away, rubber seat material stretching away like melted cheese.

"Got it!" Ezra yells.

"Re-calculating for hyperspace…" Kanan enters some commands and brings the ship about to the right heading.

 **FA-OOM!** The ship vanishes into hyperspace. Red laser beams fill the space where it had been.

.

Kanan starts shouting out, "Communications are out. Life support is failing. Atmospheric navigation controls are gone. There's a fire in the starboard wing."

"And my seat is hot and sticky," Ezra adds.

"Ezra, get your breathing apparatus and helmet ready – the fire may consume the oxygen in here."

As Kanan gets his mask, sparks fly inside their cockpits and systems panels die.

"Thirty seconds to the rendezvous point," says Kanan.

"I smell smoke."

"Put your mask on now! The air will be toxic in a minute!"

They lock their helmets shut. The ship exits hyperspace.

"I don't see the Ghost!" Ezra shouts.

"They must be behind."

"We're not gonna make it!" Ezra continues shouting.

There's an explosion and the starboard wing is largely shredded. Kanan guns it; pieces fly off into space behind him.

"That was an emergency atmospheric fuel thruster. This ship is going, I gotta land it. Taking her into that planet."

"You don't mean that white one, do you? It's an ice planet."

"It's either that or certain death," Kanan replies.

"Oh. How certain is the death again?"

"Hang on – it's going to be a rough landing!"

The ship flies into the atmosphere of the planet and starts heating up.

"How bad?" Ezra asks.

"Pull the manual crash-landing lever," Kanan quickly straps himself in.

Ezra locates the lever and pulls it. Air cushions, like a car airbag, pop up around in and fill so big they hold him softly in place.

"What about yours?" Ezra asks.

"I gotta fly her in."

Snow slams the cockpit domes, blocking their view. The engines shut off and all the panels die.

"What happened?"

"I've lost all controls. We're gonna crash!" Kanan yells back, over the sound of the alarms and snow slamming the domes.

Kanan finds his lever and pulls it.

Snow smacks the ship and cockpit domes as the ship spins out of control to the planet's surface. It clears the heavy snow and passes into lighter snow, this time low light from the system's star illuminating the sky.

The ship crashes into a hill of snow, sending an explosion of loosened snow with it. It spins around fast and slams into the snow-covered surface, breaking off the other wing and sending it cart wheeling end-to-end until the pointed nose jams into the snow, stopping it at an angle.

"Get your seatbelts off a pull the lever again – we gotta get out of here before the fuel explodes or the snow buries us!" Kanan commands.

As they do so, the internal heat and the hot frame from re-entry, cause the ship to start melting into the snow.

"I'm free!" Ezra yells.

"Gather what you can and blow the hatch!"

Finding almost nothing, they each blow open the cockpit hatches and fall to the ground.

"I'm freezing!" Ezra shouts.

"I'm aware of that," Kanan pulls out a pair of binoculars and looks around. In the side of what appears to be a large mound of snow, Kanan spots a cave opening, "There – I see a cave."

"Kanan!" Ezra yells.

Kanan looks back quickly and sees Ezra back up to him. An arm with long thick hair reaches for Ezra; the calloused rubber-looking fingers dance around, feeling for him.

"There's more!" Ezra shouts and points.

Fat heads emerge from the snow, followed by the arms to push the creatures up. Long natty and dirty hair falls down from their heads. Their faces are rubbery and a cross between shades of black and brown. Their eyes are black as night and their teeth long and jaggedy, like used cutting tools. There are four of them now and they are nearing Ezra and Kanan.

"Ezra, run best you can – I'll throw you to the cave!"

"I can't leave you alone!"

"Ezra, one Jedi has to live if at all possible – there's kind of a shortage."

Ezra struggles to run and when he thinks he's getting going as fast as he can, he uses the Force to jump up. Kanan tosses an arm out at him and Force throws Ezra. Ezra goes spinning head-to-toe about a hundred feet before be nears the ground. He tucks himself inward and barrel rolls down a slight incline until he slows and stops near the cave entrance. He un-tucks and falls on his back.

"Okay, so very dizzy. Just gonna lay here for a minute," Ezra comments aloud to himself.

A mound of snow falls on his head.

"Really?"

Kanan backs off and turns to head to the cave when he sees two more creatures pulling themselves up out of the snow. The first ones are now nearly upon him. He reaches out with his left arm and uses the Force. After a couple seconds one of the glass alloy cockpit hatches shakes and then drags across the snow toward him. Two of the creatures turn to see it after hearing the noise of it dragging, and step out of the way. It lifts up into Kanan's hands and with it he runs at the stolen vessel, tosses the half oval hatch away from himself, up into the air, then leaps up off one foot with the Force, using his other leg to spin himself 180 degrees like half a round-house kick. In a second his feet land on the exposed port side wing, with Kanan reaching behind himself with both hands to grab onto the wing's edge. He bends his knees and in the _second_ second uses the Force to propel himself off the wing into the air. He tucks in, spins once, then opens back up and lands on the inside of the hatch as it hits the snow-covered ground. He crouches down and grabs the sides and sleds toward the cave. In mere seconds he's at the entrance. He jerks one side, causing the hatch to turn and eject him. He rolls next to Ezra as Ezra brushes snow off his hair. Snow hitting the ground flies into Ezra's face.

"Next time I'll throw you and I can sled," Ezra complains.

Kanan takes a couple of seconds to shake it off, then pushes himself up. He gets to his feet and pulls out his binoculars again and looks out. He sees a group of the creatures heading for their position.

"They're coming, and there's more of them. Ezra, get the hatch cover, we may need it," he turns and heads to the cave, "I'll start breaking rocks loose to block the entrance."

Kanan grabs his lightsaber and activates it. He reaches up and forces the blade into the entrance top. Ezra hurries over with the hatch and walks into the cave. Ezra then activates his and uses it as a light to look around. He places the hatch down and looks back at Kanan, who is struggling. Kanan de-activates his lightsaber.

"Agh! I can't cut them out – whatever is in them is too tough and would take too long. What about the cave?"

"Looks like it goes back at least a little," Ezra replies.

"It may be our only hope," Kanan activates his lightsaber again and jogs over toward the back of the cave, also using his lightsaber as a light. The cave curves around and decreases dramatically in height. Kanan stops when he realizes all there is at the end is what appears to be a small hole in the cave wall big enough for them to maybe crawl through, but too small to light up.

"Well?" Ezra yells out to Kanan.

"It's no good!" Kanan yells back as he jogs back over to Ezra.

"I don't think that's gonna be a problem…" Ezra trails off.

"Why?" Kanan says as he comes about the curve. He runs over to Ezra and holds his lightsaber in a defensive manner.

"Looks like we have bigger problems at the moment…" Ezra replies.

Standing at the cave entrance are nearly a dozen of the creatures.


	2. Chapter 2

Kanan stands at Ezra's side and wields his lightsaber as well.

"My fingers are so cold I can barely feel them," says Ezra.

"Mine, too."

"I wish they'd hurry up and try to eat us, I could use a nice warm hairy coat."

The creatures remain standing at the cave entrance.

"Why don't they attack? We're pinned down and outnumbered," Kanan remarks aloud.

"No complaints from me – the longer they want to delay it, the better I feel," says Ezra.

"Maybe the lightsabers are scaring them. You guard, I'm gonna take a look at these rocks in the ground – they look more malleable," Kanan walks away and gets down on his haunches to examine the rocks.

Ezra says to the creatures, "Sorry, I'd let you guys in, but I don't wanna get eaten alive today. Not that tomorrow is any better."

"Ezra, these rocks appear to be heavily deposited with metal and iron ore. I think if we stick out lightsabers into them for a few minutes, they'll heat up and stay warm for a while. I'm going to dig some out and make a pile."

The creatures continue to stare at them from the cave's entrance.

"We should totally put a rumor out there's a secret rebel base on here and let the Empire make new friends."

"The Empire will slaughter them, Ezra."

"So? They're just a bunch of monsters that want to eat us."

Kanan looks at Ezra and points at the creatures, "They're innocent life just trying to fend for themselves during a harsh winter. Being hungry and less intelligent isn't a reason to die. When cut, they no doubt feel pain like you or I would."

"Sorry, I guess I didn't quite mean it like that."

Kanan piles rocks. Halfway into the pile he stops. He reaches over for the hatch and places it with the convex side facing up. Kanan then places the rocks inside in, thinking the rocks might melt and would collect in the re-entry heat-resilient hatch and be heated back up.

"Ezra, use this broken rock to dig a convexed hole to set the hatch in so we don't get scolded by hot spilling rocks."

"What about them?"

"We'll have to chance it; if we don't get some heat going, our body temperatures are going to drop and we'll go into hypothermic shock. Then they will eat us."

Ezra de-activates his lightsaber, looks at the creatures, then backs up steadily and turns and runs over to Kanan. He grabs the rock and furiously starts digging as Kanan continues filling the hatch. Ezra repeatedly looks up, keeping a watchful eye on the creatures, who maintain they their position at the entrance.

"I think I figured it out," says Ezra.

"Figured what out?"

"Why they haven't entered yet – they're waiting for re-enforcements."

"Or they're waiting for dark," Kanan adds.

"Oh, crap – I forgot about that. Great, as if sleeping wasn't going to be difficult enough as it is. Unless the Ghost finds us."

"Find us how? There's no distress beacon, no message sent about our whereabouts. Ezra … we may die here."

Ezra goes silent upon the realization. Kanan stands up and activates his lightsaber. He plunges it down into the rock pile and holds it.

"Work your lightsaber into the cave wall and leave it. We'll sleep against that wall tonight once it's heated up. It's cold now, but the temperature will plunge once the sun sets."

After Ezra does as he's told, he continues watching the unmoving creatures, "You know, we go on so many dangerous missions, get shot at, and fight Inquisitors, yet I never really think about death. The whole time it's just like this natural idea that I'll live to be shot at another day. You think about death?"

"Every time. It keeps me on my toes. And when you get older, you think about it more."

"If I go out, I want it to be in a heroic blaze of glory, taking as many Empire ships with me as possible, not freeze to death on some nameless planet. Back on Lothal these was this guy who'd take cabellas and klimes, squeeze 'em into molds and put wooden sticks in them and freeze them. He'd go around town selling them. Called them icesticks. And now here I am, facing the very real possibility of being a Jedistick."

Kanan takes his lightsaber out once some of the rocks are glowing red, then plunges it into others which are not.

"Consider it a change of pace."

"Ha. Ha. Ha," Ezra laughs sarcastically.

"The sun is setting. We don't have much longer," Kanan removes his lightsaber. Now the whole pile is glowing red. He and Ezra warm their fingers for a minute. Ezra keeps an eye out on the creatures, who still haven't budged.

"There are some here in the ground where we're sleeping tonight. I'm going to run my lightsaber into them and heat them up. It'll have to do – it's all we got."

"That's it – next mission, I'm packing some super thermal B-long underwear."

Kanan motions to the wall, "You're lightsaber is slipping – change spots."

"got it," he pulls it out and runs it into another part of the cave wall close to it and leaves it again.

"Tomorrow we look for food. Maybe we'll get lucky and find a lake and go ice fishing."

"Kanan, look," Ezra nods to the creatures.

Some of them begin digging into the snow and working their way back under as they had been when Kanan and Ezra crash landed.

"Hum. They might be setting in for the night," Kanan speculates aloud.

"What if they're tunneling in and grab us from underneath while we sleep?"

"Stop – I can't think about that."

"A nice warm midnight snack," says Ezra.

"As long as they eat you first, I'm okay with that."

.

The Ghost drops out of hyperspace.

Hera presses some buttons and speaks up, "Cannonball, this is Ghost, come in."

She hears no reply.

"Ghost to Cannonball, please copy."

Sabine walks into the cockpit and stands aside Hera.

"Ghost to Cannonball – do you read us?" she awaits a reply.

"Maybe their communications were knocked out," Sabine suggests.

Hera looks over at another panel and presses some buttons, "Scanning for another other vessels in the area."

"One of us should have gone with them."

"Our source said it was a two-seater, an extra person would been no good. It's bad enough we trusted Chopper to fly the skiff back."

"BUAH BAH BA!" they can hear Chopper say somewhere outside the cockpit.

Sabine comments, "Chop's got very good hearing."

"Scanners aren't showing any other vessel in the vicinity."

"Maybe they're running behind. It's not like most of our missions ever go according to plan anyway."

"Maybe…"

.

Kanan finishes kicking sand over the heated rocks in the floor.

"I feel much better now," Ezra says, his back against the heated cave wall.

The sun has set and they only light in the cave is provided by Ezra's green lightsaber and glowing rocks, which bathe the surrounding area in a soft fuzzy red.

Kanan speaks up, "All right. I'll stand my lightsaber up in this hole I melted into the wall, to deter the creatures. You're on lightsaber watch; if any come in, you go first. I'm better with Force push anyway."

"Ezra, cover me; Ezra, fly co-pilot. Ezra, let me throw you. Ezra, battle the creatures first. Why do I feel like I'm getting the short end of the stick here?"

"Okay, next time we're surrounded by creatures, you throw me to safety and you can fend for yourself."

"Well, maybe not that one," Ezra replies.

"Um hum. If you wake up in the middle of the night, check the rocks. Heat them back up if necessary. Okay, now like down and cuddle up with me."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! I like being your friend, but not that much."

"To preserves body heat, Ezra. We'll lose body heat more quickly apart. It may get into the twenties here tonight."

"Oh. Didn't think of that," Ezra says, taking one last look at the entrance of the cave; all the creatures have dug back into the snow.

Ezra lays aside Kanan, who is up against the heated wall. They both close their eyes and slowly drift off to sleep.

.

Ezra wakes up in the middle of the night, shivering. He looks at the hatch and sees the rocks have significantly cooled off. He gets up, trying not to disturb Kanan, and activates his lightsaber, sticking it into the rocks. He quickly looks at the cave entrance and sees nothing. He closes his eyes and puts his free hand in a pocket, trying to get his fingers warm. He dozes off and leans forward, starting to melt too far into the rocks and possibly damage the hatch. He opens his eyes and re-adjusts himself.

He looks out into the blackness of the save, barely glowing from the blue and green lightsaber blades. He quickly becomes more alert and opens his eyes fully. In the back of the cave where it curves, he can see eyeballs lit up from the reflections of the lightsaber blades and hears menacing snarls.


	3. Chapter 3

Kanan wakes up. The cave is starting to light up with pre-sunrise glow. He starts to move and feels Ezra sitting up against him instead of lying next to him. He spins himself around to face Ezra.

"Ezra, what are you doing?"

"Huh?" Ezra jolts his head up, having dozed off momentarily, yet still holding his active lightsaber.

"Did you sleep last night?" Kanan asks him.

"What? Sleep? Ah, some. Had to stay awake – monsters in the cave."

"Ezra, for the last – they're not monsters, they're just-"

"Oh, not them, the growlers."

"Growlers?"

"Tried to eat us all night. I hate this planet."

Kanan gets up and picks his lightsaber up by the handle, out of the wall hole.

"Put your lightsaber in the wall and re-heat it, I'll go take a look."

Kanan carefully makes his way to the back of the cave examining his surroundings, making sure he doesn't miss something.

"I'm cold, I'm hungry, I'm tired, and aliens are trying to eat me. Zeb can have the next dangerous mission."

Ezra remembers the cave entrance and quickly growls and movement. He jumps out, hoping to scare off the unknown creatures. His blue lightsaber blade barely lights up the dead end. He sees a small animal, about the size of a two-year-old kid and thin like a small monkey, look at him, it's eyes glowing blue from the reflection. IT snarls and shows its razor-sharp shark-like teeth, before dashing into the hole in the cave wall. Kanan picks up a small rock and throws it at the hole hard.

"Get out of there!"

He backs off, watching the hole and maintaining a defensive stance with his lightsaber. Once at the bend he runs away from it and back to Ezra. He looks back to make sure he wasn't followed.

"That might be a problem," he says, de-activating his lightsaber.

The sun rises and starts sending rays into the cave.

"Well, so might this," says Ezra.

Kanan looks over and there are now twice as many, almost two dozen, creatures at the cave entrance, watching.

"If they come in here, this won't be a battle, it'll be a slaughter," says Ezra.

"That's gonna be a problem, too."

"Well, you know slaughters – they can be a problem at times," Ezra comments with sarcasm.

"No, not that. We may not be able to go scavenging for food now. Even if we scare them away from the entrance, there will undoubtedly be more. We have to eat – the food gives us energy which our bodies burn and create warmth."

"Maybe there are some emergency rations in the ship."

Kanan replies, "It'll be buried in the snow by now."

"Well, we'll lift it out with the Force."

"Lift from where? Out tracks are long since gone. It's probably frozen into the ground now."

"We're really going to die here, aren't we?"

"Don't think about that. Put your lightsaber into the wall and keep heating it back up. Then let it rest. In about three hours or so, depending on the orbit and rotation speed, the cave will be lit up by the sun as much as it will get. At that point we gotta go back there and try to seal the hole those animals are coming in from."

"Oh, gee- swell – a death hole; this planet just keeps giving and giving."

"You were up too much last night. Why don't you nap for an hour or two? I'll keep guard and remove your lightsaber."

Without a word, Ezra walks to the wall and lies down against it. Ezra quickly falls asleep, without any difficulty. Kanan sits up against him to help keep each other warm and position himself so he can keep an eye on both ends of the cave. Kanan pulls out his communicator bead and starts tinkering with it.

.

Hera lies back in the pilot's chair, sleeping. She feels someone shake her awake and looks over to see Sabine.

"Breakfast?" Sabine holds out a small plate of food for Hera, also holding one for herself.

"Thanks," Hera takes the plate and sets it on her lap after sitting up, "kind of hard to have a breakfast time without sun up and sun down."

"Ezra taught me that. I mean, I used to do that back when I first came onboard, but over time every meal just became another meal. Ezra told me I'd sleep better and have better, you know, _movements_ , if I got on an eating schedule. He was right. You should try it."

Hera replies, "No thanks. Last thing we need is a five-member crew all having to go at the same time with only one head aboard."

"Find anything?" Sabine asks while eating.

"Nothing. I even tried scanning for distress beacons. I put a call out to the rebel fleet to keep an eye out just in case. Rex said he'd ask all his contacts."

"What if they're captured? How long do we wait here?"

"Maybe another twenty-four hours. After that I'm taking the Ghost to the secret base and we'll look for them there."

"I hope they're okay."

.

Ezra awakens to Kanan shaking him.

"Ezra, wake up – it's time to try and seal the hole," he hands Ezra his lightsaber.

Ezra gets up and stretches and yawns. He follows Kanan to the curve. Both of them activate their lightsabers for use as flashlights as they make their way around the curve and to the hole, bending over as it decreases in height.

They reach the hole.

"Force your lightsaber into the wall about an inch from the perimeter; we'll try to melt and break apart the roof in front."

They both push their lightsabers into the wall, both humming deeper under the strain.

"Kanan."

"Yes, Ezra?"

"I hate to ask, but if we can't get any food … do we die or do we eat each other? Would you wanna know in advance or do you want me to just whack you unexpectedly? Maybe if just cut small bits off at a time, like toes, and rationed them…"

"Ezra, please shut up."

Some pieces of the tunnel top start dripping into the bottom of the tunnel. Kanan de-activates his lightsaber and lowers it, as well Ezra.

"What?" Ezra asks.

"It's taking too long."

"Not like we don't have free time."

"No, we'll run out of sunlight and ruin our lightsabers."

"Won't these crystals run like forever?"

"Theoretically the crystal could run continuously for years but the lightsaber hilt cannot. It'll heat up and ruin the parts; we got to let them rest some – we can't run them hours at a time with heavy use days on end. Let's fill the hole with rocks best we can and try melting those together some."

They get down to dig.

.

After about twenty minutes of effort, Kanan and Ezra come walking around the curve and find half a dozen of the creatures inside the cave, watching them while two smaller ones fiddle with the hatch.

Ezra activates his lightsaber quickly and runs toward them, "Get out of here! Get out of my cave! _MY_ cave!"

The creatures scurry off as Ezra stops at the hatch. They once again position themselves at the entrance and watch.

"Well, they're comin' in the cave now. Probably only a matter of time before they get brave enough to just eat us."

"Give me you satchel."

"Sure," Ezra takes the strap off from around his neck and hands Kanan the satchel.

"Get in front of me and push the creatures away some so I can get some snow to melt so we at least have something to drink."

Ezra walks cautiously up to the entrance, swinging the lightsaber around to frighten away the creatures. They scatter about a few feet as Ezra exits the cave a foot or so. Kanan bends down and scoops snow into the satchel until it is full.

"I'm done, let's get back in."

Kanan turns and walks back in. Ezra backs up until he's further in, then de-activates his lightsaber. The two dozen plus creatures again crowd the entrance. Kanan hovers his right hand over the heated rocks in the hatch, to feel how hot they are. He dumps all the snow onto them on one side, then activates his lightsaber and sticks it in the other side.

"It'll take a couple minutes to heat these rocks up to boil the water clean.

Ezra sits down and watches.

"Why do they have to just stare at us with those weird eyes all the time?" Ezra comments.

"Keeping an eye on their prey."

"I guess."

"Or they're just watching what they eat," says Kanan.

"No, no, no – that's not funny."

"Sorry," Kanan says, smiling a little.

"If they'd just leave I could maybe shoot a bird down. Got to be other life on this snowball."

"All I know is that if we don't eat in the next twenty-four hours, we'll have to go out there and kill one of them and cook it," says Kanan.

"You say that like it's a bad thing."

"I don't take any solace in killing a sentient being that's never wronged us. For all we know, the one we eat may be those youngsters' mother or father."

"You're officially making me feel bad about eating the creatures who want to eat me. Maybe we can eat the kids – they can have more, right?"

"Oh, God – Ezra," Kanan says in a disgusted voice.

"What? It was just a suggestion."

Kanan removes and de-activates his lightsaber, watching the water boil on the rocks. Ezra looks at the creatures. One of the small ones watches intently, it's jaw shaking up and down with a faint raspy noise coming from it, much like a cat sitting in a window sill watching birds.

"He really, really wants to eat me," says Ezra.

"It's always good to have goals in life," Kanan looks at the ground around the hatch, "Why is the ground moving?"

"I told you they were gonna dig threw the ground!" Ezra backs up.

Kanan bends down and brushes the dirt some, revealing worms.

"The heat from the walls and the hatch must be drawing them here."

"Yay – now I get to sleep on worms who'll probably lay eggs in my ears," says Ezra.

"Don't you know what this means?"

"Worm poop?" Ezra replies.

"Food!" Kanan picks a worm up and holds it on a red rock. It shrivels and fries. Kanan lifts it up, blows on it to cool it off, then eats it.

"OH! I'm friends with a worm eater!"

"They'll keep us alive a little."

"You want _me_ to eat a worm?"

"As many as possible," Kanan replies.

"No way."

"You will. That stomach will growl and it'll look like a dinner tray of goodies," Kanan bends down again and grabs more worms, getting back up and cooking them, too.

"Maybe, but not right now," says Ezra.

"Suit yourself. I'm going to melt a bowl into that loose rock to poor the water into."

Kanan activates his lightsaber and sticks it into a small boulder, carving slowly into it.

"If we survive this, from there on it I'm going to remember to pack emergency rations on each mission," says Ezra.

Kanan gets down on his haunches and angles his lightsaber blade up about fifteen degrees, and pushes it into the boulder, working it up to the bowl-shaped outline carve he made. Once up into the outline, he slowly moves the blade in and out of the rock, allowing melted rock to trickle out the drain hole.

Kanan comments, "I was stuck on this hot baron hell hole called Sennooo once. Had to boil my own urine until I was rescu-"

His lightsaber hilt crackles. He lets go and backs off. It shuts off automatically and hits the ground. It sparks and makes popping sounds before finally going quiet and emitting a little trail of smoke.

"That's not good," says Ezra.

Kanan waits a few seconds for it to cool off, then picks it back up. He points it upward and presses the activation button; nothing happens. He tries again, getting the same result. He puts it back on his belt.

"This isn't good. Let me use your lightsaber – I gotta finish making this bowl."

"Here. This is bad, isn't it?"

Kanan breaths in and out, now starting to finally worry, "Well, we'll have to heat the wall up again, heat the rocks in the ground again, heat the rocks in the hatch again, heat them up in the middle of the night, and leave your lightsaber on so our new friends don't rip us to pieces while we sleep. It's a lot of heat and stress on your hilt."

"S, you're saying…"

"I hope you can see well enough in the dark to fight, 'cause tonight it may be lights out…"


	4. Chapter 4

The sun begins to set on the cave as snow once again starts to fall.

"I'm shivering cold. It's colder than it was last night, even with the heat," says Ezra.

"It may dip down to zero tonight. I don't think this is enough heat to keep us alive."

"Well, I have no ideas."

"Help me move these big rocks. We'll create an enclosed hole alongside the wall."

"Kind of like a make shift coffin?" asks Ezra.

"We'll heat the rocks up and they'll serve to also block the frigid air. Maybe that'll be just enough warmth."

They both work as quickly as possible to move the rocks.

.

Hera and Sabine sit in the chairs of the cockpit.

"Heard from Rex yet?" Sabine asks.

"An hour ago. None of his sources heard about any prisoners taken. Nothing about the experimental craft either. Must not have been reported yet."

"How much longer until we leave?" Sabine asks.

"Should have left already. I guess I was holding out hope. Better tell Zeb we're heading for a fight," Hera reluctantly presses some buttons.

"Maybe if I just wished upon a star, like that twinkling one over there."

"Wait – what twinkling star?" Hera asks her.

"Over there, see?" Sabine points.

"Sabine, stars twinkle because of atmospheric particles and atmospheric layers – we're out in open space, shouldn't be any twinkling stars. I'm going for a closer look…"

Hera steers the Ghost over toward the twinkle. She stops when she hears little knocks on the hull.

"What is all this?" Sabine asks.

"That's metal alloy. These are ship parts."

"No – you don't think they exploded?"

Hera scans, "Too localized. And they all appear to be heading away from us. It's like a trail. Do you think you can plot a trajectory? There's only two planets and four moons nearby."

"Absolutely. Did something similar once tracking a ship threw a disturbed debris field."

"Good, give it to me when you got it."

.

The sun has since set. Tensions are high as they time the creatures have not left and are building a wall of snow around the entrance.

Ezra comments aloud, "I think they're gonna attack soon. They're trapping us in here."

Kanan looks up after seeing his shadow being faintly cast onto the ground by blue light. Above them where the heat from the rocks in the hatch is rising to, worms gather on the ceiling, energized by the heat and bioluminescing a neon blue.

"At least we have more light," says Kanan.

"You _ate_ those things – you're poop is gonna glow blue."

They both look over quickly when they hear sounds from the back of the cave; growls and the sounds of rocks being broken.

"They're working their way threw the seal. It won't be long now. Ezra, only you have a lightsaber now."

Ezra stands up, starting to panic, "What if I tried controlling their minds?"

"Remember what happened with the giant spiders?"

"Well, what about your communicator bead?"

"No good. Not enough parts or power. The Ghost would have to be in the atmosphere and over this land area to pick up its signal."

"We can't do nothing!"

"If you got a better idea, now's the time," Kanan replies.

"Well, I don't have one!" Ezra yells.

"Ezra, calm down. If you don't focus, you'll die for sure."

They hear the sound of pieces of rocks hitting each other as they fall, from the back of the cave.

"We got probably a minute or so before they're in. Take your lightsaber out of the wall and get ready?"

As Ezra removes his lightsaber out from the wall it was hearing, Kanan stands up. They stand back-to-back.

Kanan speaks up, "You take the big ones, I'll take the smaller ones – they'll be easier to Force push."

"Right."

Suddenly Ezra's lightsaber hilt crackles and sparks and then with a hiss of smoke, shuts off.

" _ **NO!**_ " Ezra exclaims, trying the button again and again.

The warm fuzzy red and light neon blue from above barely provide enough light to even see their attackers.

"Ezra, I'm proud of you."

"That's _we're gonna die_ talk!"

The creatures at the front start inching closer and closer. The sound of large pieces of rock falling echo in the cave and then the unmistakable sound of growls from now inside the cave.

The small creatures from the back come running around the curve, snarling loudly and making other screams.

Kanan Force-pushes a couple, knocking others with it. Another creature screams as it runs and leaps at Kanan; he lifts it and slams it against the cave wall, splattering guts. More run around the curve.

"Ezra help! There's too many!"

"On it!"

Ezra turns sideways and Force pushes with both hands, trying to protect both flanks. Kanan shoots one back, knocking others over like bowling pins. The fuzzy big creatures give bellowous roars and charge them. Ezra pushes a couple back but can't handle them all or fight both at the same time. They swamp Ezra, who covers his face.

"NO!" Ezra yells out. After a couple of seconds of no attack, he opens his eyes to see a young creature looking at him, then running away. He lowers his arms and looks at the back of the cave. The creatures violently attack the snarling small ones, punching, kicking, swinging them into walls. One smaller one kicks one down, steps on it, and grabs its arms and rips them off.

"They're not eating me!"

"But they others are trying to – use the Force!" Kanan reminds him.

A creature jumps on Kanan, knocking him down. With its razor-sharp teeth it bites down into one of his shoulders and gnaws back and forth violently at it.

" **OW!** "

"Kanan!" Ezra yells.

The small creature looks up and Ezra motions at it and raises it fast, slamming it into the ceiling, splattering some of the worms.

A loud noise thunders from outside.

"Ezra, I can barely move."

Ezra comments, "I think something bigger wants to come in and eat us."

They hear the sounds of laser gun fire and see the snow wall being blown to pieces.

"Kanan!" Hera yells.

"Hera!" he yells back.

Zeb rips down snow and he, Hera, and Sabine dash in, warm coats on and laser guns in hand. The Ghost hovers behind them, spotlights casting their shadows in and lighting up the cave.

"Don't shoot the big ones! And I can't move," Kanan yells out.

"Got you. Zeb, get Kanan!" Hera commands.

"On it," Zeb runs over.

More nasty small creatures with shark-like teeth pour into the cave, outnumbering the big creatures.

Hera and Sabine stand beside each other and fire repeatedly, blowing to pieces the creatures as they rush them. Ezra uses the Force to yank one off the furry white creatures, and smacks it repeatedly into the side of the cave. Zeb slings Kanan over his shoulder, and runs him to the Ghost's opened hatch.

"How'd you find us?" Kanan asks.

"Sabine followed your ship's crumb trail and all that hot air you were making, rose up out of the cave and created a smoke stream – kind of stood out. Gotta go shoot things now."

"Wait – get Ezra a couple of medium-yield miniature explosives."

"Right."

"Ezra, we could really use a lightsaber right now," Sabine yells out.

"Both of them broke!"

Ezra joins by their side and starts using the Force to toss about the blood-thirsty creatures. Zeb joins them and they move in at a quick pace, firing, Force pushing and sending the creatures into retreat. They start scattering toward the curve and to the tunnel.

"Kanan told me to give these to you," Zeb pulls out the explosives.

"Hell yes! Cover me!"

They make their way to the end of the cave, firing on remaining creatures. The rest hop into the hole; Hera and Sabine fire into the hole; Ezra motions for them to stop. He activates the explosives and sets the timer for ten seconds.

"Eat a boom, your pieces of crap!" and he Force throws them in after pressing the timer ignition button. "Run!"

They run fast around the curve and passed the big furry creatures which are eating the smaller dead ones. One of the heated rocks in the hatch, replicating what he had seen Kanan do with worms.

 **BOOM! BOOM!** The cave rattles. Some smoke from obliterated rock wafts around the curve.

Ezra pauses as he nears the hatch to the Ghost, "Thanks for not eating me!"

Once they're all in, Chopper closes the hatch. Hera gets down and looks at the bite marks on Kanan's shoulder.

"Must be some kind of temporary paralyzing agent – look at the wound colors."

"I am starting to feel a little stiff," says Kanan.

"Careful, I might take that out of context," Hera says quietly to Kanan. She opens a medical kit Sabine has walked over, "This should counteract the neurological agent," she injects him with a jetstream injector, requiring no needles.

Zeb asks Ezra, "What about the experimental ship?"

"A total bust. Shot up and shorted out, and buried in the snow."

Hera comments, "At least you two are alive. Speaking of snow, I better fly us out of here before it accumulates on the Ghost and weighs us down," Hera gets up and heads for the cockpit.

Sabine and Zeb help Kanan up and put both his arms around their shoulders, steadily helping him to his quarters.

"Thank you," says Kanan.

Ezra follows.

"So, what did you two do while you were down there?" Sabine asks.

"Freeze," says Kanan.

"Freeze," says Ezra.

"That's a shame. If you had just traveled another five hundred miles, you'd have been in the summer zone. We flew over it; looked nice," Sabine comments.

"Oh, man – why can't we ever be in peril in some tropical paradise?" asks Ezra.

"I'll try and make reservations with the Empire next time," Kanan says as he slowly climbs the ladder up to the second story deck.

"Anything interesting happen?" Zeb asks Ezra.

"Kanan ate bugs!"

Ezra follows them up.

"Ew!" we can hear Sabine's voice on the second deck.

The Ghost flies out of the planet's atmosphere and into space.

Down below, the furry creatures cuddle in the warmth and protection of the cave, finally able to take up residence now that the hole has been sealed.

 **-THE END-**


End file.
